Lady&#39;s girdle



June 30, 1953 E. BRZOZOWSKI LADYS GIRDLE Filed March 29, 1951 Patented June 30, 1953 Application March 29, 1951, Serial No. 218,204

1 Claim.

This invention relates to ladies girdles and is herein disclosed in some detail as embodied in a highly elastic girdle which is continuous around the body and needs no lacing and which may be put on as a unitary garment only because it stretches in certain parts made of suitable elastic fabric.

Ladies have demanded a close fitting figure supporting garment and attempts have been made to meet that demand in two different kinds of garment structure. In one form of structure the garment or girdle is formed of separate units which are brought together on the body by laclngs, or by other devices which hold the units together. But such girdles are difficult to adjust, the separate units become displaced, and are generally a nuisance and very unsatisfactory.

In the other form, the garment forms a single unit continuous around the body, and includes elastic fabrics adapted to be stretched so the garment may be pulled up over the hips, and the elastic fabrics then are supposed to contract to fit the waist and hips.

Such latter garments have been made and have been on the market but are open to the serious objection that the garment has to be pulled on by main force, often getting it properly set only after an exhausting struggle of fifteen or twenty minutes. Moreover, in the struggle to pull the garment into proper place, the wearers hand often slips and a fingernail catches on the garment and breaks.

This difficulty of pulling the girdle into place is nowfound to arise partly from the fact that the hand of the wearer, in putting on the garment, usually seizes an elastic stretch of the fabric and in pulling that up causes the fabric to contract peripherally, and thus render the garment smaller. This smaller periphery, in effect, reduces the size of the garment and increases its resistance to being pulled into place while it seems to cling to the skin.

According to the present invention most of the foregoing objections and difiiculties are completely overcome, and a girdle is provided which affords a unitary structure, continuous around the body, in which no major displacement of any part is possible, and which can be easily slipped on despite the tendency of the elastic fabric sections to hold the girdle to the body.

In the form shown, soft finger-holds are provided, anchored preferably inside the girdle, below an elastic belt element, so that the wearers fingers may be slipped into the loops of the fingerholds and easily pull the body of the girdle into place.

In the form shown, the finger-holds draw at least in part on non-elastic elements in the elastic fabric, so that there is little or no tendency to pull up the main elastic fabric at any one narrow spot. The broadened upward pull eliminates shortening of that fabric peripherally, thereby eliminating the increased clinging of that fabric to the wearers body. Thus the girdle is easily pulled into place in a few seconds.

Other features and advantages will hereinafter appear.

In the accompanying drawings:

Fig. 1 shows the girdle in perspective;

Fig. 2 is a sectional view on the broken line 2-2of Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a fragmentary face of the finger hold in place.

The girdle shown in Fig. 1 is largely of one conventional form in which back and front vertical panels H) and H of non-elastic fabric are joined together by being stitched to panels l2 and I3 of a somewhat open mesh elastic fabric. Around the top edge of the panels H, !2, l3, runs a belt M of elastic fabric sections 15 connected by the non-elastic fabric top 16, all stitched together at the meeting of the sections l5 with the fabric I6, along vertical lines.

Spaced along the continuous bottom edge of the girdle are shown garter straps I! (and others not shown) at suitable intervals and carrying the stocking clasps (not shown).

The belt I4 is shown as stiffened by flexible, so-called bones l8, and to the elastic fabric l2 and I3, are stitched special soft stiffeners or bones l9 that extend down nearly three inches from the belt (4, terminating at 22, a little above where the fullness of the elastic fabric almost becomes a straight seam over the hips.

According to the present invention the girdle includes finger-holds 2, stitched at their lower enlarged V-shaped ends to the elastic fabric l2 or [3, preferably inside the girdle, and also preferably each to a bone I9 by one side of a V.

The two finger-holds at opposite sides of the girdle preferably each include a loose loop 2! at the top so that the wearer may insert a thumb or finger in each loop and pull upward on the garment, and are preferably made of soft, strong fabric.

The bones l9 near the middle of its elastic fabric section, distribute the pull so that the elastic fabric l2, l3 remains almost undistorted and shows little additional tendency to cling to the wearers body, but easily slips over the skin so as to bring the girdle almost into final position with no struggle. The final adjustment is easily made because the undistorted elastic fabric l2,

l3. offers no great resistance.

The girdle may include a zipper 23 extending through the belt and downward a few inches to permit extra expansion at the belt I4, if desired.

Having thus described one embodiment of the invention in some detail, what is claimed is:

A girdle comprising a continuous body .having a top belt at least partially elastic, vertical elastic panels below said belt, interposed non-elastic panels between said elastic panels, said belt and panels being secured together, a stiflener in said elastic panels on each side 'of the girdle} said stifiener being positioned several inches below '4 the top of the panel and finger holds in the form of loops anchored in the stiffeners so as to draw on the elastic panels well below the tops thereof, said loops terminating below the top of the garment so as to be out of sight.

EVELYN BRZOZOWSKI.

References Cited in the file of this. patent UNITED STAEIZES PATENTS. 

